JP6374604B2 - Dual-modality communication device and communication method - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a communication device for performing data communication using a human or animal body as a transmission medium, the communication device having a transceiver unit having at least one of a transmitter and a receiver. The communication device has one or more user devices in contact with or near the body and an electrostatic transducer that allows data communication to be performed through the surface of the body. The present invention also relates to a system of communication devices, wherein the system is configured to communicate with each other via data communication utilizing a human or animal body as a transmission medium.

  With the increasing number and functionality of implantable and wearable devices, there is an increasing need for reliable and high throughput and secure communication within and around the body. There are several technical options that can meet these needs, and their suitability depends on the characteristics of the communication channel (human body) for each type of signal, the size required for implementation, and achievable Judged by the ratio of power to performance. For short-term and long-term use, safety limits for signal amplitude and duty cycle exist for each signal type to prevent damage to the human body.

  In medical applications, there is a data communication method in which a human body is used as a transmission medium and communication is performed between devices attached to the human body or nearby. This allows, for example, local sensor data obtained from a specific location on the patient's body to be transmitted to a central receiving device that collects those signals. Of course, many other applications for such communication methods are possible. In general, such a communication network that utilizes the body as a transmission medium may be referred to as a body area network (BAN). Recently, such methods have evolved into a new type of communication called body coupled communication (BCC), which allows data communication at very high frequencies (HF) as high as 100 MHz. To do.

  In BCC type data communication, data signals are transmitted through the body surface (ie, skin). By making the HF carrier frequency available, this type of communication has the potential to achieve high data rates, making this type of communication suitable for data communication between many types of wearable devices. To do. However, in some cases (eg, for medical applications), it may be desirable to allow data communication with devices inside the body. Examples include data communication with a pacemaker to obtain motion feedback, or obtaining data from a wireless probe brought into the body during a medical diagnosis. Neither BCC-type communication nor radio-wave type communication is appropriate for this task, because the signal is only carried over the body surface (in the case of BCC) or in the air and is used for communication purposes inside the body. It is because it cannot penetrate.

  For now, appropriate availability to allow "body bound" data communication between devices, regardless of whether such devices are located on, near or in the body There is no solution. Different types of communication systems are relied upon in different situations due to the different nature of communication types suitable for reaching devices in different locations.

  Document US 2004/202339 describes a technique for connecting a hearing aid to another device through the body of the person wearing the device. This document describes the use of ultrasound or wireless communication.

  It is an object of the present invention to provide a communication device suitable for enabling data communication with other devices located in or near the human or animal body. Furthermore, there is a need to enable such communication in a cost effective and energy efficient manner.

  For this purpose, a communication device for performing data communication using the human or animal body as a transmission medium is provided herein. The communication device includes a transceiver unit having at least one of a transmitter and a receiver. A communication device can communicate data with one or more user devices that touch or are close to the body (e.g. in close proximity (e.g. within 0-10mm)) through the body surface An electrostatic transducer. The communication device further includes an ultrasound transducer that enables data communication through the body using ultrasound. Both electrostatic and ultrasonic transducers are capacitive transducers that are connected to and operated by a transceiver unit. Thus, both electrostatic and ultrasonic transducers share the same transceiver unit.

  By sharing the transceiver unit between both types of transducers, efficient power consumption can be achieved, while at the same time allowing an elegant and simpler design (operating both transducers Because only one transceiver is needed). The simplified design allows the communication device to be produced at a low cost, thereby increasing the availability for all types of equipment. Furthermore, the device can be made smaller, but improves its usefulness.

  Ultrasonic communication presents the best signal propagation in terms of the smallest form factor and energy consumption in the body, while body coupled communication is power efficient and user friendly with respect to body contact and contact communication. Are better. At the boundary (or edge) of two different transmission media (both body surface and body interior), the characteristics of the communication channel change dramatically (eg, from water to air). Traditionally, this makes the propagation of one and the same type of signal impossible or impractical. However, in the present embodiment, a transducer that converts an electrical signal into a signal that propagates optimally in a specified medium, for example, an ultrasonic signal in the body and an electrostatic signal on the body. Is used.

  In particular, according to the present invention, the applied ultrasonic and electrostatic transducers are of capacitive type and thus have similar characteristics in terms of operating frequency and signal type. The transducers can therefore be operated by the same transceiver, thereby allowing a design in which the transceiver unit is shared. The same communication protocol can be applied to both electrostatic transducers (eg, depending on the type of body-coupled communication device) and ultrasonic transducers. This enables the construction of a unified communication network that enters and exits the body based on the communication device of the present invention. Thus, communication is performed more quickly and more efficiently, and the application area of the technology increases due to incorporating both types of transducers into a device having (at least one) shared transceiver. . The need for only a single transceiver, i.e. in a half-duplex form, for example, compared to an implementation that relies on two different transceivers (one for each type of signal and associated protocol). And has an important size reduction effect. Thus, both technologies are easily integrated into a single device (such as a wearable user device or a medical device) as a result of the present invention.

  According to one embodiment, the transceiver unit is configured to communicate at a radio frequency within a frequency bandwidth of 100 kHz to 30 MHz, preferably 100 kHz to 10 MHz, more preferably 1 MHz to 10 MHz. Optimal ultrasound transmission characteristics for the body are in the frequency range of about 100 kHz to about 10 MHz. Communication at low ultrasonic frequencies results in degraded spatial resolution or increased transducer size. At higher frequencies, signal attenuation increases and the maximum communication distance that can be reached by low-power devices decreases. Similarly, for body-coupled communications, the optimal propagation frequency is above 100 kHz and below 30 MHz. At low frequencies, the spectrum is typically strongly affected by noise and interference, while above 30 MHz, the height approaches the wavelength of the signal and the body begins to function as an antenna. Thus, both transducers can operate optimally within the above frequency range of the identified embodiment. This frequency matching is particularly interesting from the viewpoint of optimizing dual-modality communication. Considering the fact that both transducers of the device of the present invention are capacitive type transducers, the electronic device and the applied communication protocol can be the same, provided that the transducer Excludes impedance matching and biasing applied to the reducer. Outside of a given frequency range, some additional conformance may be required to compensate for attenuation, reduced spatial resolution, or noise, but the invention still works with some extension. . Accordingly, the specified range is not essential to the invention, but the above ranges are preferred in terms of additional advantages.

  Thus, according to another embodiment, each of the electrostatic transducer and the ultrasonic transducer has driver electronics, which is at least one of impedance matching and biasing of each transducer. Configured for. In addition, the driver electronics may be equipped to optimize other operating parameters of each transducer, depending on the situation. Effectively, it has been found that at least the impedance matching and the applied bias voltage are different for both transducers and thus may be performed by the driver electronics comprised by each transducer. For example, to operate in a collapse mode, a capacitive ultrasonic transducer may be biased with a DC voltage of 100 volts.

  In yet another embodiment, the ultrasonic transducer comprises a capacitive micromachined ultrasonic transducer (CMUT). Capacitive micromachined ultrasound transducers can be easily integrated together into a single communication device by capacitive coupling, because both types of transducers are capable of capacitive and desired operating bandwidth. This is because they have similar characteristics from the viewpoint. As will be appreciated, capacitive couplers are applied as electrostatic transducers that enable body coupled communication (BCC) in embodiments of the present invention.

  The CMUT is usually constituted by a cavity formed in a silicon substrate. The silicon substrate is supported by the metallization layer on the top of the membrane that functions as the top electrode or the membrane itself, and the bottom electrode. This configuration forms a capacity as a whole. When an alternating current (AC) signal is applied between the electrodes, the membrane is vibrated and ultrasonic waves are generated.

  The wavelength of the generated ultrasonic wave depends on the size and tension of the membrane. When the CMUT operates in collapse mode, the element is biased with a sufficiently high DC voltage (e.g., as described above) so that the central portion of the membrane contacts the bottom electrode (or substrate) and the center of the membrane Only the surrounding circumferential ring produces ultrasound. As a result, the resulting frequency is high and the transmission characteristics of the elements are different.

  Thus, according to a further embodiment, the ultrasonic transducer driver electronics is configured to apply a DC bias voltage to the ultrasonic transducer to operate the transducer in a collapsed mode. In principle, it is not essential for the CMUT to be operated in collapsed mode, but the higher resonant frequency of the CMUT and the higher acoustic power that is generated will ensure proper operation of the communication link with other communication devices. Is advantageous to obtain. When CMUT operates in normal mode (or normal mode) (not in decay mode), these resonant frequencies are low and signal power. This is of course electronically compensated, but for that reason it is recognized that operation in collapse mode is advantageous in many embodiments.

  According to a further embodiment of the invention, the transceiver unit comprises at least one of an encoder cooperating with the transmitter or a decoder cooperating with the receiver, and at least one of the encoder or decoder is It is configured to encode or decode data according to a DC-free encoding method. In particular, according to a further embodiment, the encoder or decoder is configured to encode or decode data in accordance with a certain encoding method, which includes the Manchester encoding method and the high-density bipolar encoding. A member of a group that has a bipolar coding scheme such as high density bipolar coding. Manchester coding is a DC-free type coding method (ie, the non-constancy of signal state polarity (high / low) prevents the generation of DC components). In addition, Manchester coding is a self-clocking coding method that allows the synchronization of the data communication signal by the receiver to be performed based on the signal itself. The advantage of the DC-free coding method is that it is suitable for the antenna capacity. In particular, if no DC component occurs, the operation of the transmitter and receiver is constant during operation and no additional components are required for the driver electronics.

  The receiver unit in the transceiver of the communication device further comprises a low noise amplifier to handle low peak-to-peak voltages in the CMUT and electrostatic coupler received signals. Especially in the case of CMUT, the received signal has a peak-to-peak (for example, 10-90 mV) of several tens of mV, which is advantageous in that the low noise amplifier improves the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). As shown in this embodiment, along with the selective use of the low noise amplifier, the timing generation unit, the clock recovery unit, the data correction unit, and the decoding unit are shared and integrated in the shared transceiver electronic device. Good.

  According to a further embodiment of the present invention, the electrostatic transducer has one or more capacitive couplers that enable data communication utilizing a body coupled communication protocol. As described above, body coupled communication applications allow operation with the same frequency bandwidth as an ultrasound transducer. Furthermore, the BCC can be applied while utilizing an electrostatic transducer having a capacitance similar to that of an ultrasonic transducer, and this is one of the advantages of the present invention.

  According to a further embodiment of the invention, the communication device comprises a plurality of transceiver units, each transceiver unit being capable of simultaneous communication via a plurality of communication channels, And the number of simultaneous communication channels connected to each of the electrostatic transducers is less than or equal to the number of transceiver units. In embodiments where a single transceiver unit is utilized, the possible mode of communication is half duplex. The same data signal can be transmitted simultaneously by one or both of an ultrasonic transducer and an electrostatic transducer. Transmission of different (ie non-identical) data signals by a single transmitter will require multiplexing in time to allow transmission in different time slots. On the receiving side, the receiver locks to the transmitter and can only receive one signal at a time. Receiving a plurality of different data signals simultaneously requires a plurality of receivers. To allow multiple data signals to be fully duplexed by any transceiver without multiplexing, at least two transceivers can simultaneously generate and process transmitted and received signals, etc. is necessary.

  According to another embodiment of the invention, the transceiver unit comprises at least one element of a group comprising a plurality of receivers, a plurality of transmitters, and a multiplexer unit.

  According to the second aspect of the present invention, there is provided an apparatus having a plurality of communication devices according to the above characteristics.

  According to the third aspect of the present invention, a system using a plurality of communication devices is provided, and the communication devices are configured to perform mutual communication between communication devices by data communication using a human or animal body as a transmission medium. And the communication device comprises or consists of at least one of a wearable device, a portable device, and a group comprising an implantation device suitable for implantation in a human or animal body.

  According to the fourth aspect, a method for performing data communication between a plurality of devices using a human or animal body as a transmission medium is provided, and at least one first device of the plurality of devices is a human or animal Disposed in the body, and at least one second device of the plurality of devices is disposed on or near a human or animal body, the method comprising performing data communication between the plurality of devices, Using a communication device in contact with the body, the method comprising: utilizing a transmitter of a transceiver unit of the communication device to generate a data signal; and of a plurality of transducers of the communication device Transmitting at least one of the data signals to at least one of the first device and the second device using at least one of the plurality of tokens; The transducer includes an electrostatic transducer and an ultrasonic transducer, the method comprising: selecting, by the controller of the communication device, all or any of the transducers that transmit data signals, the method comprising: The transducer is selected if the data signal is to be transmitted to at least one second device, and the ultrasonic transducer is selected if the data signal is to be transmitted to at least one first device, Both electrostatic and ultrasonic transducers are capacitive transducers that are actuated by the same transceiver unit. A communication device can be an individual device or can be included as part by any of a plurality of devices, ie, as an integrated communication unit. As will be appreciated, the transducer is in contact with the body to allow transmission, eg, an ultrasonic transducer is in contact with the body.

  According to one embodiment, the transceiver unit of the communication device further comprises at least one receiver to which each of the electrostatic transducer and the ultrasonic transducer is connected, the method comprising: an electrostatic transducer or an ultrasonic transducer Receiving a data signal by both or one of the acoustic transducers; and processing the data signal utilizing at least one receiver to obtain data carried by the data signal; .

The present invention will be further clarified by the description of several specific embodiments with reference to the accompanying drawings. The detailed description provides specific examples of possible implementations of the invention, but should not be construed to limit embodiments within the scope of the invention thereto. The scope of the invention is defined in the claims, and this description should not be construed as limiting the invention but as an illustration.
1 is a schematic diagram of a communication device of the present invention showing layers for signal transmission. FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a communication device of the present invention showing layers for signal reception. FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a communication device of the present invention. Schematic about the application of the present invention. Schematic about the application of the present invention. The figure which shows transmitting using the communication method of this invention. The figure which shows receiving using the communication method of this invention.

  1 and 2 show the communication device of the invention, in particular showing possible layers for signal transmission (FIG. 1) and possible layers for signal reception (FIG. 2). FIG. 1 provides a block diagram illustrating the major components on the transmitting side of the dual-modality communication system 1 of the present invention. The transmitter 22 receives control signals via the input (unit) 20 of the transceiver unit 3, and generates data to be transmitted in response to such control signals. Data generated by the transmitter logic unit 22 is first encoded by the data encoder 25. The encoder 25 addresses the capacitive nature of the transducers 6 and 10 using, for example, Manchester encoding. However, other types of DC free encoding may be used instead. The encoded transmit signal is provided to two modality specific driver blocks 5 and 9, which incorporate driver electronics and appropriate bias and impedance matching networks. The transceiver 6 is a capacitive micromachined ultrasonic transducer (CMUT) that generates an ultrasonic data signal 15. The ultrasound data signal 15 may be transmitted through, for example, a human or animal body, schematically illustrated as a moisture environment 100 in FIGS. The electrostatic transducer 10 is a capacitive coupler for generating an electrostatic data signal 18, such as, for example, a body coupled communication (BCC) data signal. The electrostatic data signal 18 may be transmitted across (or along) the surface of the human or animal body, schematically illustrated as media 200 in FIGS.

  Since the CMUT 6 requires a large voltage excitation in order to generate a sufficiently large acoustic signal 15, the signal to be encoded must first be amplified with driver electronics. Furthermore, a large bias voltage needs to be applied by the driver 5 in order to operate the CMUT 6 in the collapse mode. And in order for CMUT 6 to operate correctly, its bias and the output impedance of driver block 5 must be carefully designed. Driver block 9 for BCC communication via capacitive coupler 10 need only boost the signal. Impedance matching can be divided into the input of driver 9 to ensure interoperability with driver 5 and the side of coupler 10 to facilitate coupling of signal 18 to body surface 200. . BCC type communication allows data communication in the vicinity of the body surface, i.e., the communication operates even a few centimeters (e.g., 10 cm) from the body.

  It should be noted that the realization of this dual modality allows for respective synchronization and simultaneous transmission to multiple devices (between) inside and outside the body. At the same time, since the communication protocol used is half-duplex (as described above), one device at a time (in this case only) from any other device transmitting in any dual-modality mode. It is possible to receive.

  On the transmission side, transmission data is given to the CMUT device 6. This data is amplified by the driver electronics 5 before being transmitted by the CMUT device 6. In the experimental step, the 200 mV peak-to-peak signal generated by the transmitter 22 of the transceiver 3 is amplified by the “50 dB RF amplifier” of the driver 5. In addition, a bias voltage of about 100V is applied to the CMUT device by the driver electronics 5 in order to operate the CMUT device 6 in the collapse mode. As described above, the CMUT device 6 may operate in a collapsed mode in order to generate sufficient power with an appropriate frequency bandwidth. If CMUT device 6 does not operate in collapse mode, communication may occur, but the resonant frequency is lower than in collapse mode, and the low acoustic power generated can degrade the desired operation of the communication link. There is. A normal bias T circuit may be implemented in the driver electronics 5 to provide the bias voltage and the AC input voltage to the CMUT device 6 simultaneously.

  FIG. 2 shows a block diagram relating to the receiver layer of the communication device 1. The receive chains for ultrasound and body-coupled signals are generally the same, except that the transducer elements 6, 10 and the associated impedance matching and biasing electronics in the driver blocks 5, 9 are different. For example, a bias voltage may be applied to the CMUT device 6 as in the case of transmission to ensure proper operation of the CMUT device 6. The ultrasonic signal 15 picked up by the CMUT device 6 is converted into an electric signal by the driver electronic device 5 of the CMUT 6, for example. The CMUT device 6 may be in a receive mode that is treated as a transducer with audio input and current output. In receive mode, the driver electronics 5, 9 do not actually amplify the signal from the transducer. Since the signal from CMUT 6 is small and typically has a peak-to-peak magnitude of tens of millivolts, a low noise amplifier (LNA) 27 first amplifies the signal before it is decoded. Similarly, any signal received by the capacitive coupler 10 and processed by the driver 9 may be amplified by the LNA 27. Depending on the signals coming from the drivers 5, 9, the LNA 27 can be realized as a voltage, current or transimpedance amplifier. A signal conditioning chain for dual-modality communication is also shown in FIG. The amplified signal is provided to the clock recovery unit 29 and the data correction circuit 30. The data restoration unit 29 and the data correction circuit 30 may cooperate with the timing generation unit 28. The output of the data correction circuit 30 is thereafter provided to the decoder 32. The received data may then be transferred to a controller or other circuit (not shown) associated with output 33.

  As described above, on the receiving side, the CMUT device 6 converts the received acoustic signal 15 into an electrical signal (typically a current signal). As shown in FIG. 2, the transceiver 3 may operate in a receive mode. Similar to CMUT device 6 in transmit mode, a bias voltage of about 100V is provided to CMUT device 6 by driver electronics 5 to operate CMUT6 in collapse mode to set the sensitivity in the appropriate frequency range. It is necessary to Accordingly, a bias T circuit may be applied in the driver electronics 5 between the receiving element 27-32 of the transceiver 3 and the CMUT device 6. The receiver impedance matching circuit of the driver electronic device 9 can be a relatively simple circuit, and may be composed of, for example, a direct single capacitor only.

  As will be explained, this implementation for the signal processing chain of the receiver allows transmission and reception of one signal modality at a time. Simultaneous reception of more signals requires an increase in the number of receivers, for example, by using multiple transceivers 3. However, time-multiplexed operation is preferred to improve the energy efficiency of the formed body area network. This is facilitated by selected communication principles that allow high data transfer rates. Therefore, many nodes can exchange data in short time bursts.

  Furthermore, the drivers 5 and 9 in the application of the present invention may also have a switching capability for switching between different modes (e.g. between transmission and reception), for example matching each type of communication. Need attention. Other elements may be present in the driver electronics 5, 9 or in the transceiver 3 or in some other part of the embodiment of the invention, and the other elements themselves are not further described herein.

  FIG. 3 schematically shows a communication device 1 according to the invention. In FIG. 3, the device 1 has a transceiver 3 shared by an ultrasonic transducer 6 and an electrostatic transducer 10. Similar to FIGS. 1 and 2, each transducer 6, 10 has associated driver electronics 5, 9, respectively. The CMUT unit 6 has a bottom electrode 45 and a membrane / electrode 40. Between the electrodes 40 and 45, a semiconductor structure 43 is constructed, forming a capacitor and including a cavity (or cavity) 41. By applying an AC voltage including an appropriate bias voltage, an ultrasound signal is generated.

  An electrostatic transducer 10 formed by a horizontal capacitive coupler 10 is also shown in FIG. It has a first electrode 35 and a second electrode 37, between which a dielectric material 39 is placed to form a capacitor. As will be appreciated, the electrostatic transducer 10 may alternatively or additionally include a vertical capacitive coupler (not shown). In the case of a vertical capacitive coupler, a plurality of electrodes (e.g., electrodes 35 and 37) are placed parallel to each other at the top, and an appropriate dielectric (e.g., material 39) is placed between the electrodes to form a sandwich structure. Have Furthermore, there may be a wide variety of useful electrode configurations that may be applied in various embodiments.

  4 and 5 schematically show two applications for dual-modality communication. Both situations differ with respect to the physical arrangement of the communication devices (60a / b, 70a / b, 72a / b, 63, 55 and 56) with respect to the communication medium (50, 52). If the communication device (60a / b, 63, 55 and 56) shown in FIG. 4 is placed inside the body, such as device 63 or if only enabled BCCs are present May be a single modality communication device, such as a smart watch 55 or a mobile phone 56, for example. However, where desired, the communication device may be a dual-modality communication device such as device 60a / b. The communication device 60a / b may be, for example, a hub type node 60a / b, which node is connected to an extracorporeal network via an electrostatic transducer 60b and to an intracorporeal network via an ultrasonic transducer 60a. It is possible to link seamlessly. Ultrasonic signal 64 and electrostatic signal 58 are shown in FIGS. This application demonstrates how a transplantable device can be easily connected to a wearable or portable device. This can greatly facilitate networking of implantable devices. Node 63 in the body represents an active transceiver with only an ultrasonic transducer as an antenna. In practice, the communication node can be a stand alone, battery powered device, or it can be attached to a catheter and other instruments (allowing insertion).

  In addition to the above, instead of utilizing the hub device 60a / b, the dual-modality communication device may be part of a wearable or portable user device. The need for only a single transceiver that can be shared between the ultrasonic and electrostatic transducers opens up the possibility of incorporating the technology into, for example, a mobile phone.

  In FIG. 5, devices 70a / b and 72a / b with dual communication modalities enabled are placed on (and outside of) the body. Devices 70a / b and 72a / b communicate with each other and select the communication modality that provides the best propagation characteristics on that channel. The communication may be across the body surface (or along the surface), for example by transducers 70b and 72b, or may penetrate the body by transducers 70a and 72a. FIG. 5 shows an ultrasonic signal 73 and an electrostatic signal 71. As will be appreciated, additional on-body or in-body communication devices may be present in FIG.

  6A and 6B schematically illustrate a method for performing data communication between a plurality of devices using a human or animal body as a transmission medium. The method of FIG. 6A begins at step 110 by generating a data signal based on the data 100, which may be received from a controller or other element in the communication device of the present invention. In step 110, the data signal is generated utilizing the transmitter of the transceiver unit 3 of the communication device 1. Next, in step 120, the data signal is transmitted to another device (e.g., an implanted device) placed in or near the body (e.g., a wearable or handheld device). In step 120, an appropriate transducer (for example, an ultrasonic transducer such as CMUT6 or an electrostatic transducer such as BCC) is selected. If data signals are to be provided simultaneously to different types of devices, both may be selected. In steps 125 and 126, the data signal is transmitted via CMUT 6 in step 125 and via a BCC type electrostatic transducer (eg, capacitive coupler) in step 126.

  In the case of signal reception, in FIG. 6B, the data signal is received by CMUT 6 at step 140 and by electrostatic transducer 10 at step 145. In step 150, the receiver of transceiver 3 locks to the data signal and processes it. In step 160, the transported data 170 is obtained from the received data signal.

  An example application for this use is a node located under an arm. In this position, the BCC suffers from poor propagation characteristics due to a short circuit of the capacitive field under the arm. This can be solved by permanently switching to an ultrasonic link or only by dropping out a BCC link.

  The present invention has been described above in terms of specific embodiments. It will be appreciated that the embodiments described and illustrated herein are for illustrative purposes only and are not intended by any method or means to be a limitation of the present invention. The meaning of the invention described herein is only defined by the appended claims.

Claims (13)

A dual-modality communication device that performs data communication using a human or animal body as a transmission medium,
A transceiver having at least one of a transmitter and a receiver ;
An electrostatic transducer that utilizes a body-coupled communication protocol to enable data communication by the body surface with one or more user devices in contact with or near the body ; and
An ultrasonic transducer that enables data communication through said body by using ultrasonic waves, the electrostatic transducer and ultrasonic transducer is coupled to the transceiver over the operation and via the transceiver A communication device that is a capacitive transducer. It said transceiver over the, 100kHz to configured to communicate at radio frequencies of the frequency bandwidth of 30 mH z, communications device of claim 1. Said transceiver over, the a transmitter and further at least one of decoders at least one of an encoder or cooperating with the receiver cooperating, at least one of the encoder or decoder, DC-free sign each is configured to encode or decode data by Act communication device of claim 1. Either at least one of an encoder or decoder, respectively configured to encode or decode data according Manchester encoding method or bipolar coding method, communication device according to claim 1. Wherein each of the electrostatic transducer and the ultrasonic transducer is have a configured driver electronics for impedance matching or biasing, the communication device according to claim 1. The ultrasonic transducer is a capacitive micromachined ultrasound transducer, a communication device according to claim 1. The ultrasonic transducer driver electronic device, to actuate the ultrasonic transducer in the collapse mode, configured to apply a DC bias voltage to the ultrasonic transducer, the communication of claim 4 device. The communication device according to claim 1, wherein at least one of the receivers includes a low-noise amplifier that amplifies signals received from the ultrasonic transducer and the electrostatic transducer. The communication device of claim 1, wherein the electrostatic transducer has at least one capacitive coupler that enables data communication utilizing a body coupled communication protocol. Having the communication device additional transceiver over, each of the additional transceiver over so as to allow simultaneous communication through multiple communication channels, the ultrasonic transducer and the electrostatic transducer connected thereto, the communication device according to claim 1. A method for performing data communication between multiple devices using the human or animal body as a transmission medium, comprising :
The method comprising the steps of: providing a plurality of devices sac Chino first device, the first device is located in the human or animal body, the step;
Providing a second device of the plurality of devices , wherein the second device is disposed on or near the human or animal body ;
Utilizing a dual-modality communication device to perform the data communication between the plurality of devices ;
By utilizing the transmitter of the transceiver over the communication device, generating a data signal;
Using at least one transceiver of the plurality of transducers of the communication device, the data signal, and transmitting to the first device or the second device, the plurality of transducers , to have the electrostatic transducer and ultrasonic transducer, step;
Step wherein the data signal when it is transmitted using the body coupled communication protocol to the second device, the previous SL dual-modality communication device, pre-select Kiseiden transducer; and
Selecting the ultrasonic transducer when the data signal is transmitted to the first device;
Has, the electrostatic transducer and the ultrasonic transducer is a capacitive transducer which more is activated to the transceiver over method. Before Quito transceiver over, the electrostatic transducer and has the ultrasonic transducer further at least one receiver are connected, the said method:
Step receiving more said data signal to said electrostatic transducer or said ultrasound transducer; to get the data carried by and said data signal, said data signal utilizing said at least one receiver Processing step;
The method of claim 11 , further comprising: The communication device according to claim 1, wherein the communication device is configured by at least one of a group of a wearable device, a portable device, and an embedded device.

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